Morning from Naeba. Earlier on there was a bit of blue sky up there and the sun poking through but now it is a more cloudy state of affairs and it looks like it might soon be snowing... that's what the forecast tells us what to expect as well.

For the weekened? More light snow and cloudy conditions perhaps with a chance of clearings from time to time, is what the forecast is telling me now.

Some people have asked us what "Splash Bowl" is. Well, Splash Bowl is a new course area for this season, running sort of next to the Daishamen course in the central area of Naeba. With an average steepness of 35 degrees and apparently a steepest gradient of 45 degrees, this approx. 200m ungroomed course area is for people confident in their abilities - and certainly not for beginners. It's not open every day - dependent on snow and weather conditions. From now I'll try to mention if it is open on a day in these reports, but please keep in mind that they can open and close during a day depending on conditions. Today, it's closed.

Thanks for reading our reports through the 16-17 season. If you are planning a trip to Japan, please do make use of our extensive reporting archives (links below) and the Snowfall Analysis page (tab at the top of this page).